TORONTO — A convicted killer who is heir to an aviation empire told a court Friday he has no money to pay for his defence in two upcoming murder trials.

Dellen Millard, who was convicted of first-degree murder with Mark Smich in the death of Tim Bosma in June, said he has filed for legal aid.

Millard was in court as a judge tries to expedite the process for his legal aid application to ensure the two scheduled trials are not delayed.

Smich and Millard are due to go to trial next September for first-degree murder in the death of Toronto woman Laura Babcock.

HandoutTim Bosma’s disappearance on May 6, 2013, after leaving on a test drive of a pickup truck he was selling online, triggered a huge reaction not only in Hamilton but around the world.

Millard is also charged with first-degree murder in the death of his father, Wayne Millard, head of Millardair until his death in 2012. That trial is scheduled for March 2018.

Justice John McMahon held Friday’s hearing to seek clarity on Millard’s finances because the convicted killer has yet to hire a lawyer for both trials.

Court heard Millard has a 50 per cent stake in Millardair and Millard Properties, with his father’s estate owning the balance.

Those companies are now in court-appointed receivership, which means their assets are effectively frozen.

The Bosma family has filed a $14-million lawsuit against Millard and Smich, but that process remains at a standstill because of the receivership proceedings.

Bosma vanished in May 2013 after he took two strangers for a test drive in a truck he was trying to sell online. His remains were found in an animal incinerator, dubbed The Eliminator, police located on Millard’s farm in southwestern Ontario.

REINHARD ZINABOLDAn undated archival photo of Millardair plane and hangar . Owned by the Millard family

A Hamilton jury found Millard and Smich guilty of first-degree murder.

Millardair was founded in 1963 by Dellen Millard’s grandfather, Carl, who turned it into a multi-million dollar business. After Carl died in 2006, his son Wayne took over.

Dellen Millard took control of Millardair after his father’s death, which was initially deemed a suicide. According to documents filed in commercial court, Millard is the beneficiary of his father’s estate.

However, Millard cannot inherit because he is charged with his murder.

TORONTO — Dellen Millard, the heir of a decimated aviation dynasty charged last May with the murder of Tim Bosma, the Hamilton, Ont., man who vanished during a test drive of a pickup truck he was selling online, is now an accused serial killer.

Mr. Millard, 28, of Toronto, appeared in a Toronto court Thursday and was charged with two more counts of first-degree murder: that of his father, Wayne, whose death in November 2012 was previously deemed a gunshot suicide; and of a former girlfriend, Laura Babcock, who was 23 when she disappeared in June 2012.

Police also said Mr. Millard’s friend and co-accused in the Bosma case, Mark Smich, 26, of Oakville, Ont., faces a second charge of first-degree murder in the Babcock case; and Christina Noudga, 21, of Toronto, Mr. Millard’s girlfriend at the time of his arrest, is charged with accessory after the fact to murder in Mr. Bosma’s death.

Ms. Babcock’s family had earlier said the last phone calls she made were to Mr. Millard. Officers broke the news to her family before the media announcement Thursday.

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Police working on a multi-jurisdictional task force, called Project Capella, would not publicly say, however, whether Ms. Babcock’s remains have been found.

Toronto Police Laura Babcock.

“Investigators are still following up on new information,” said Sergeant Pierre Chamberland, an Ontario Provincial Police spokesman.

Added Staff Inspector Greg McLane, supervisor of the Toronto police homicide unit, “This investigation will continue into all three matters until the investigative leads have been exhausted.”

Mr. Millard’s lawyer, Deepak Paradkar, spoke with his client after learning of the new charges and expressed his dismay.

“We’re zealously going to defend it. He is definitely pleading not guilty to the charges and, at this point, we can only await to see what their case is,” he said.

“There are a lot of unanswered questions. We’re going to take one case at a time.”

Mr. Paradkar suggested police are trying to pin additional charges on Mr. Millard because the notoriety of the Bosma case makes him an easy target.

“Originally, [Wayne Millard’s death] was labelled a suicide so I just don’t know how it goes from suicide to homicide unless it is pure notoriety; like, they got him on the Bosma murder and somehow now they revisit the case from two years prior and it’s supposedly a homicide.”

The preliminary hearing against Mr. Millard and Mr. Smich in the Bosma case is scheduled to take place in September and a trial is expected the following spring.

The new charges are unlikely to be combined with that case, which was investigated by Hamilton police.

Mr. Millard was arrested in May 2013 after Mr. Bosma, 32, did not return after accompanying two strangers who responded to an online ad for his truck on a test drive.

The mystery of the disappearance and desperate pleas for his safe return by his wife, Sharlene, drew wide, global attention.

Mr. Millard was later charged with murder. Soon afterward, Mr. Bosma’s charred remains were found on a farm near Cambridge, Ont., owned by Mr. Millard. Also found at the farm was an incinerator, known as The Eliminator, typically used to cremate livestock. Police earlier said Mr. Millard did not have farm animals on the property.

After his arrest in that case, the farm was searched again, this time by Toronto investigators working on the other two cases linked to Mr. Millard.

Mr. Millard’s grandfather, Carl, started his own charter airline, Millardair, which operated until 1990. He became somewhat legendary in the industry for his hard-headedness and for moving unusual freight to far-flung places.

Later, the Millard family owned an airplane maintenance company that operated from Toronto’s Lester B. Pearson Airport, which Wayne Millard took over in 2006.

Classmates of Dellen Millard said they most remember him for his odd, attention-seeking behaviour. In Grades 6 and 7, he walked the corridors of his elite private school carrying a box of dog treats, taking out the bone-shaped biscuits and munching on them to howls of disgust from classmates.

He then became the youngest Canadian to solo pilot both a plane and a helicopter, when he accomplished the feat on his 14th birthday. The event drew media coverage and suggested he was continuing the family’s aviation tradition.

But while he did fly, owning planes and helicopters, his passion appeared to be automotive and he built, fixed and raced a collection of cars.

He did, however, take over the family’s dwindling aviation business when his father died in 2012, but quickly moved to dismantle it.

Missing woman Laura Babcock was an Internet escort and romantically involved with Dellen Millard, who is charged with murdering Tim Bosma, but a search of the Millard farm where Mr. Bosma’s charred remains were found revealed no evidence to help find her, Toronto police said Tuesday.

Homicide detective Mike Carbone said Ms. Babcock, 23, and Mr. Millard, 27, were “romantically linked, although I would not say they had a traditional dating relationship.”

Ms. Babcock was involved in the sex trade for several months before she was reported missing almost a year ago, but he had no information Mr. Millard was, although the man appears to have taken nude photos of a woman for online publication.

There was contact between Ms. Babcock and Mr. Millard’s phones on July 3, 2012, the detective said, but suggested Mr. Millard may not have been the last person to speak with her.

“We’re attempting to speak to other individuals who have been in contact or have been identified as having contact with Laura,” he said, asking anyone who has had contact with Ms. Babcock to call police.

The woman’s family and friends have been pushing for police to search more aggressively for her and told reporters about the phone link weeks ago. Her mother, Linda, and Shawn Lerner, a friend, have also said Ms. Babcock appeared to be romantically involved with Mr. Millard.

FacebookDellen Millard is now facing three murder charges.

Last July, Mr. Lerner asked on Facebook for help accessing the SIM card in the iPad he lent Ms. Babcock at the time she disappeared to trace her whereabouts. He said he had asked police to do it “over a week ago but haven’t heard anything.”

On Tuesday, Det. Carbone said he only knew of the link to Mr. Millard after his arrest last month and police had conducted a thorough investigation.

Ms. Babcock was last seen June 26, 2012, at 9 p.m., in Toronto’s Queen Street West/Roncesvalles Avenue area. On July 16, 2012, police issued a missing person alert saying they feared for her safety.

Interest in her case grew considerably when she was linked to Mr. Millard, a millionaire heir to an aviation dynasty.

Ms. Babcock is white, 135-140 pounds, with long, brown hair that was often dyed blond. She has a belly-button piercing and is deaf in her left ear.

Det. Mike Carbone said the records indicate Millard and Babcock were in contact with each other in July 2012, shortly before she went missing.

Babcock and Millard were in touch on July 3, 2012, Carbone said, nine days before Babcock was reported missing by her ex-boyfriend.

Toronto Police Laura Babcock.

Carbone said police became aware of the phone connection after Millard’s arrest in relation to the disappearance of Ancaster, Ont. father Bosma.

Carbone also said that Babcock became involved in the sex trade as an Internet escort in the months before her disappearance. He said Millard and Babcock had a “romantic relationship,” but that it was not a “traditional dating” one.

Carbone said they are looking through Babcock’s phone records and attempting to speak to other people have were in contact with her before she went missing.

Police are asking for the public’s assistance in what they say is still a missing persons case.

Babcock’s mother and ex-boyfriend have said she knew Millard and that the last eight calls on her phone were to Millard.

Last week, Toronto homicide investigators searched a farm near Ayr, Ont., west of Hamilton, owned by millionaire and accused killer Millard.

The search came after Hamilton police concluded their search of the same property, where they say Bosma’s charred remains were found last month.

FacebookDellen Millard is now facing three murder charges.

Carbone said police found no evidence in relation to Babcock’s disappearance at the property.

Toronto police were also investigating the death of Millard’s father, Wayne, whose November death inside the Toronto home he shared with his son was originally believed to be a suicide. Wayne Millard’s remains were previously cremated and released to the family through a funeral home.

Carbone said the investigation into Wayne Millard’s death is continuing and he could not comment on it.

When Shawn Lerner last saw Laura Babcock, he checked her into a Toronto hotel, took her out for dinner and lent her his iPad to look for apartments.

She was thin and her hair was dyed blonde.

After almost a year, a Toronto Police investigation had proven unsuccessful in finding Mr. Lerner’s ex-girlfriend, who disappeared in late June 2012.

TwitterDellen Millard

But as the story of an Ancaster man’s death played out over the last two weeks, Mr. Lerner noticed a familiar name.

Dellen Millard was charged with first-degree murder in the death of Timothy Bosma, whose charred remains were found on Mr. Millard’s farmland outside Waterloo, Ont.

After reading the news, Mr. Lerner says he and his ex-girlfriend’s family reiterated to police that Dellen Millard was the last call on record with the missing woman’s phone — causing police to revisit the case.

Sgt. Stephen Woodhouse — who was the lead detective in the search for Laura Babcock last year — was informed earlier this week that Hamilton and Toronto police were looking into the stagnant case.

Sgt. Woodhouse said police are investigating leads that suggest Ms. Babcock was in contact with Dellen Millard shortly before her disappearance.

In June 2012, Ms. Babcock had just left home and her phone bills were being mailed to her parents’ house. After she went missing, the family started scrutinizing the calls listed on the document.

Mr. Lerner says the bills show eight calls to Mr. Millard in the days leading up to his ex-girlfriend’s disappearance. The woman and Mr. Millard had been friends for several years, Mr. Lerner said.

“I met him only once or twice,” he said, “but certainly she knew him a lot better.”

Courtesy of Shawn LernerLaura Babcock was last seen in the summer of 2012.

Despite being only an acquaintance of the man, Mr. Lerner contacted Mr. Millard to inquire about the string of phone calls. He says Mr. Millard refused to discuss the matter over text messages, so the two met for coffee.

“First he denied it, he said ‘There couldn’t have been eight calls,’” Mr. Lerner said. “But I had the records in my bag.”

After seeing the records, Mr. Millard told him “she was calling looking for drugs and a place to stay.” He told Mr. Lerner that he did not oblige either request.

“When we saw the phone records, that’s when I got suspicious, I suppose,” he said.

Mr. Lerner said he and his ex-girlfriend’s family notified police of the phone records, but “they weren’t very interested.”

The original investigators tasked with finding Ms. Babcock were never aware of any relationship with Dellen Millard, Sgt. Woodhouse said. The phone records didn’t come to police’s attention at the time either, he said.

“In this case we had no idea where Laura was living at the time, who her circle of friends were, what she was doing,” said Sgt. Woodhouse, who has since taken another position within Toronto Police and is no longer assigned to the case.

“In a city of 3 million people, where do you start?” he said. “We did the standard press release and put her picture out there… We followed the leads that we had.”

Mr. Lerner said police have recently interviewed him regarding Ms. Babcock’s disappearance, as well as several of Ms. Babcock’s friends. They have also noted the serial number of the iPad Mr. Lerner lent to the woman.

Despite the renewed interest in the case, Mr. Lerner says he has not recieved any answers about Ms. Babcock’s case.

“We’re encouraged now that the police are taking this seriously and devoting some resources to this,” he said. “She was a good friend even though we had broken up and I just want to see her return home safely.”

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/missing-woman-reportedly-contacted-murder-suspect-dellen-millard-before-her-disappearance/feed8stdLaura Babcock disappeared in the summer of 2012.TwitterCourtesy of Shawn Lerner